Pasadena Retirement Community featured in Venice award-winning film

Familiar Touch film made in collaboration with the residents and staff of Villa Gardens

PASADENA, Calif., Sept. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Familiar Touch, a “coming of (old) age” film that won the Luigi de Laurentiis Lion of the Future prize for best first film at the 81st Venice International Film Festival Orizzonti Competition, was filmed at Villa Gardens, a Front Porch Retirement Community located in Pasadena, and included residents and staff among its cast and crew.

Written and directed by Sarah Friedland, who won for best director and starring Kathleen Chalfant, who received the award for best actress, Familiar Touch follows an octogenarian woman’s transition to life in assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship to herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity, and desires.

In her acceptance speech, Friedland said, “None of this exists without the residents and staff of Villa Gardens Continuing Care Retirement Community who invited us into their stories, home and workplace.”

In the five weeks leading up to principle photography, Friedland and members of her film crew and cast led workshops on different aspects of filmmaking for Villa Gardens residents, such as scriptwriting, cinematography, acting, editing and art direction. “Each week we would shoot a very short film, and the residents who participated in the workshop would rotate roles, so if you were directing one week you were acting or designing the next. By the end of it, everyone who participated got to try every aspect of filmmaking,” said Friedland.

Residents and staff also participated in the film itself, both on camera and behind the scenes. Dick Myers, a retired Navy pilot who had a career in consulting, real estate, and software development and had never acted before, took on a non-speaking role as a resident in a memory care neighborhood, appearing in several scenes. Resident Lisa Tanahashi worked with the Art Department, meeting with other residents to select personal pieces of art to be displayed in various scenes. The process of collecting the art and hearing the stories behind each piece added a special dimension to the movie, Tanahashi shared.

“Something about this experience changed us,” said Tanahashi. “We walk a little taller, we feel things a little deeper, we got to know each other, and we got to laugh with and at each other as we were going through this unfamiliar process.”

According to the Director’s Statement, “By turning a retirement community into a professional film set and intergenerational artist residency, we wanted to challenge the perception of care facilities as depressing places devoid of creativity, and support older adults’ self-expression while inviting their, and care workers’, collaboration in our anti-ageist character study.”

More information about Familiar Touch can be found at https://www.familiartouchfilm.com/.  

About Villa Gardens
Villa Gardens is a Front Porch Retirement Community located in Pasadena, California. With a full continuum of care and a wide array of amenities and services, Villa Gardens builds community by cultivating meaningful relationships and experiences that respond creatively to changing needs. Learn more at https://frontporch.net/community/villa-gardens/.

About Front Porch Communities and Services
Front Porch is a dynamic not-for-profit organization, dedicated to empowering individuals to live connected and fulfilled lives through community and innovation. In support of this vision, Front Porch provides high quality, accessible and affordable human services through senior living communities, affordable housing communities and other programs and services throughout the United States.

Media Contact: Laura Darling, VP of Communications
[email protected]
818-482-7597

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SOURCE Front Porch